The multimedia messaging service (MMS) provides methods for the peer-to-peer and server-to-client transmission of various types of data including text, audio, still images, and moving images, primarily over wireless networks, see, for example, Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Multimedia Messaging Service, Architecture Overview, Approved Version 1.2 1 Mar. 2005, available from http://www.openmobilealliance.org/release_program/mms_v1—2.html.
While the MMS provides standard methods for encapsulating such data, the type of data may be coded in any of a large number of standard formats such as plain text, 3GP video and audio/speech, SP-MIDI for synthetic audio, JPEG still images. For details on any one of those standards, please refer to “Multimedia Messaging Service”, published by Media formats and codecs, 3GPP TS 26.140, V7.1.0 (2007-06), available from http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-info/26140.htm.
FIG. 1 illustrates one example of an MMS system architecture 100, including an Originating Node 102, a Service Delivery Platform 104, a Destination Node “I” 106, and an Adaptation Engine 108. The Originating Node 102 is able to communicate with the Service Delivery Platform 104 over a Network “A” 110. Similarly, the Destination Node “I” 106 is able to communicate with the Service Delivery Platform 104 over a Network “B” 112. The Networks “A” and “B” are merely examples, shown to illustrate a possible set of connectivities, and many other configurations are also possible. For example, the Originating Node 102 and the Destination Node “I” 106 may be able to communicate with the Service Delivery Platform 104 over a single network; the Originating Node 102 may be directly connected to the Service Delivery Platform 104 without an intervening network, etc.
The Adaptation Engine 108 may be directly connected with the Service Delivery Platform 104 over a link 114 as shown in FIG. 1, or alternatively, may be connected to it through a network, or may be embedded in the Service Delivery Platform 104.
In a trivial case, the Originating Node 102 may send a multimedia message that is destined for the Destination Node “I” 106. The message is forwarded through the Network “A” 110 to the Service Delivery Platform 104 from which the message is sent to the Destination Node “I” 106 via the Network “B” 112. The Originating Node 102 and the Destination Node “I” 106 may for instance be wireless devices, the Networks “A” and “B” (110 and 112) may in this case be wireless networks, and the Service Delivery Platform 104 may provide the multimedia message forwarding service.
In another instance, the Originating Node 102 may be a server of a content provider, connected to the Service Delivery Platform 104 through a data network, i.e. the Network “A” 110 may be the Internet, while the Network “B” 112 may be a wireless network serving the Destination Node “I” 106 which may be a wireless device.
In a more general case, the capabilities of the Destination Node “I” 106 may not include the ability to receive, decode, or display the message in the form in which it was sent from the Originating Node 102. In order for the Destination Node “I” 106 to handle the message, the message received from the Originating Node 102 may be modified in the Adaptation Engine 108 before being delivered to the Destination Node “I” 106.
A “Standard Coding Interface” (STI) proposed by the “Open Mobile Alliance” provides a framework for standardizing an approach to message adaptation for the MMS in “Architecture of the Environment using the Standard Transcoding Interface” as described in the Open Mobile Alliance document OMA-AD-STI-V1—0-20270515-A “Architecture of the Environment using the Standard Transcoding Interface” Approved Version 1.0 dated 15 May 2007.
In the example configuration of FIG. 1, transmission of a message from the Originating Node 102 to the Destination Node “I” 106 would involve the following five steps, assuming that message adaptation is required:
Step 1:                a “source message” is sent from the Originating Node 102 to the Service Delivery Platform 104;        
Step 2:                the Service Delivery Platform 104 determines the capabilities of the Destination Node “I” 106, for example by interrogating the Destination Node “I” 106 directly or by consulting a database of capabilities;        
Step 3:                the Service Delivery Platform 104 sends a request to the Adaptation Engine 108, the request including the original “source message”, and a description of the capabilities of the Destination Node “I” 106;        
Step 4:                the Adaptation Engine 108 performs the adaptation of the “source message” into an “adapted message”; and        
Step 5:                the Adaptation Engine 108 returns the “adapted message” to the Service Delivery Platform 104 which forwards it to the Destination Node “I” 106.        
In addition to adapting a message based on the capabilities of a destination node, the Adaptation Engine 108 may also perform additional processing on the message.
FIG. 2 illustrates one example of an expanded MMS system architecture 200, including the MMS system architecture 100, augmented with an additional Network “C” (116), connecting a second Destination Node “II” (118) with the Service Delivery Platform 104.
As in the MMS system architecture 100 described above, a source message from the Originating Node 102 may be adapted in the adaptation engine 108 into an adapted message before being sent to the Destination Node “I” 106, and a second adapted message may be sent to the Destination Node “II” 118, where the second adapted message may be independently adapted depending on the capabilities of the Destination Node “II” 118.
In another example, it may be desired to forward a message received in the Destination Node “I” 106 to the Destination Node “II” 118. If the capabilities of the two destination nodes differ, the forwarded message may have to be adapted again. If the original source message had been adapted first to the capabilities of the Destination Node “I” 106, it may have lost in quality which cannot be regained when the message is subsequently forwarded to the Destination Node “II” 118 even though the Destination Node “II” 118 may have higher capabilities that would have enabled it to receive the original source message without loss of quality, for example.
In another example, the Destination Node “I” 106 may modify a multimedia source message before forwarding it to the Destination Node “II” 118. In this case, it may be inconvenient or impossible to retain some original content in the forwarded message.
In yet another example, a source message may be directed to two or more destinations. While the present systems allow the message to be adapted according to the capabilities of each destination, some unnecessary adaptations may be perform when some destinations have equal or compatible capabilities.
To overcome these and other deficiencies of the prior art, there remains a requirement for developing systems and methods that would allow messages to be more efficiently forwarded or broadcast to other destinations, and without loss of quality where this is possible.